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With This Ring (Young Justice SI) (Thread Fourteen)

Reader mode
Mr Zoat said:
13th February 2013
21:45 GMT -5

Shadows swirl and the pages of the book flap and we're back.

Wholeness Rightly Assumed.
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Oh, yes, OL's been just itching to get his Rings back online, hasn't he? I see it wasn't too hard to work out how to get out, given the time taken. Pity it looks like this whole shebang has been a washout for him.

Ahhhhhh…

Serifan looks around, frowning. "Who said that?"
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Ha! Looks like OL was 'speaking' loudly enough for them to pick up the pseudo-godspeech.

B'dg twitches in his hands. "Got one of those fer me?"

"Yes! Certainly! Would you mind taking your ring off?"
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If he went through anything like OL did, I suspect he'll be very willing to agree to that.

He tries moving his arms, and they just sort of shake a little before falling back. "Hey, kid, could you take it off fer me?"

Serifan frowns at me for a moment, then reaches his hand over and pulls B'dg's ring off his finger. Immediately I hit him with an orange beam, scanning his injuries and knitting his flesh back together.
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Thankfully, his physiology isn't anything too complex.

Moonrider frowns. "Is there a reason why you did not use your healing ray?" "I think it was him."

"That would probably be fine." I shut the beam down as B'dg checks himself over before putting his ring back on. "But with a novel species I'd rather err on the side of caution. You alright?"
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True, Purple Healing Rays tend to be tuned to humans first, then human-like forms second. I don't think B'dg wants to risk being turned into a tiny human. :p

"Yeah." He looks at the book as Lightray picks it up, closing it and examining the cover. "Shame we can't say the same about Lantern Peldak."

I scan the cover, and… Yes. That's her skin alright. I try scanning… Oh. Apparently I can scan the shrine now, and…
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On the upside, Lyssa will be somewhat hampered without her book. On the downside, it means she'll probably have to start over...

"Her body's-. The rest of her body is in one of the workshops. Her species doesn't really have a funeral tradition-" Because corpses draw predators. "-so there isn't much point returning her body to her homeworld. I…" I exhale sadly. "If we can't get in contact with Lantern Ub'x, I can perform a Hellenistic funeral service? Unless anyone's got a better idea."

A few headshakes, and Lightray hands the book to me. "We should tell the Shadow Champions about Lyssa Drak…" He turns to Vykin. "Unless you know where Minfinity Man sent her? "
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...So what happens to those who die in the cities of her people? I assume there's some system for picking them up without people fainting too many times. Bet the teams who do it are considered a little creepy by the normals.

Vykin looks slightly awkward. "I do not." He looks at the others but they don't appear to have a better idea.

"Is this..? It?" We all look at Dreamer. "We don't have any other leads on Ub'x, and Peldak is dead. We don't know where her ring is… I glad that we have got back the closeness that we had before.. Apokolips, but we have not won."
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I suppose that's kind of a win, at least for them. Though their ability to call Drax is still unavailable while Infinity/Finality Man is corrupted...

Ring, map.

Compliance.

"No, but…" Moonrider looks at me. "We could deal with the corrupted Infinity Man outselves. Or get Prince Drax into a position where he could."
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...Possible. Assuming the one on Earth isn't too corrupted, they might be able to god-mode hack it...

Warning: fear detected.

Oh heck.
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...Oh, right, Lyssa Drak was studying fear...

"Excuse me!"

I run down the hermitage corridor, take a left, down a flightly of stairs and there's a door until I crumble it-.
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Why take the time to open it when you're in that big a hurry?

I see the station where Ms. Drak assembled her book, spare pages and pots of glue and ink in their compartments on her desk. I see the mortal remains of Lantern Peldak, along with the syringes and flensing knives used to extract the parts of her body that Ms. Drak used. I see a.. strange… Apparatus, connected to runic sigils in the talokite style which are doing… Something, relating to the glowing yellow ring sitting in a cradle in the apparatus.
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Nice! Boss Loot! And an Epic item at that!

A yellow power ring.

I form a construct gauntlet around my right hand and grab it, shoving it into one of my equipment pouches.
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Hey, don't be a Loot Ninja, OL. :eek: This party is 'Need or Greed'!

Does… Make my deal with Weaponer Lysis a bit redundant, but never look a gift horse in the mouth. That's red, orange, yellow, green, blue and violet. Could really do with an-

B'dg flies in after me.
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Ah. Right. I suspect he'd feel obliged to confiscate it in the name of public safety.

-indigo, but there… May be a way around that.

He looks at the remains. "That her?"
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What's left of Peldak, yes. Not sure how much use she'll be now...

"Yes."

"Shame. She seemed like a real go-getter."
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Relatively speaking. I suppose trying to give one of the meaner species in the sector a bloody eye earned his respect...

"I thought you'd been ordered to bring the Indigos in?"

"Doesn't mean I think she was a bad person. And the order didn't even say they were shutting them down. They're just being careful about power ring proliferation." He looks at the machine. "So, ah… Any idea what it does?"
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Ah. The Guardians don't want Power Rings out there unless they're holding the reins. Because the alternative is a War of Light, followed by a Blackest Night...

I try… Making sense of the runes. Oh… Kay… I think that part matches… Part of Johns…

Channelling fear from the Shadowlands into the apparatus. But the whole… Thing, looks a lot more simple than what Weaponer Lysis was using. Qwardians are about as advanced as a people have to be in order to try making power rings, and the talokites aren't as advanced as them. They shouldn't be able to make new rings…
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On the other hands, the Weaponers favour science and technology. This setup is purely mystical... And magic can cover a lot of ground Science can't without a lot of buildup.

I crouch down, pretending to take a closer look at the design while slipping my ring hand into the pouch with the ring.

Carefully, I touch the inside with the tip of my middle finger.
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Careful, OL. Who knows what sort of boobytraps it has...

Ring?

Tor lorek san, bor nakka mur,
Sinestro faan tornek wot ur.
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...Ah. I'm betting this is Peldak's Rijng, retinted in the same way Alan's was: By overloading the capacitors with an alternate part of the Spectrum.

Ah.

I remove my hand. That explains where Peldak's ring went. Yes, okay, indigo somehow uses other colours, so they infused another colour into it, and… Got an actual yellow ring out of it. I think?
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The only problem is, even with some beginner hacking of the software, it's still set up with Indigo Tribesman code. Which appears to be very hard to crack.

"I'm going to need to get a Controller to take a look at this."

"This Sector has Green Lanterns. I'm pretty sure we have jurisdiction."
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Well, you get to argue it out with the Controllers, then.

"Well, yes, but do you think that you can get a Guardian to personally look at this… Set up?"

"Probably not."
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Probably very busy being... All mysterious and stern...

"N.E.M.O. has a Shadow Champion and a surfeit to maltusians, we're happy to share our findings and one of the local Green Lanterns used his power ring to escape a mental institution."

"When you put it that way…"
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Yes, not the best showcase for the Greenies.

I stand, and… As much as Greek custom says that I should take the body and skin at once, I think Lord Hades will understand if I wait for the police investigation to be completed.

And then…

Then I think it will be time to return to Earth.
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Let me guess: Planning a little Ring-hacking of your own?

Well, OL kind of got what he wanted: One formerly Indigo Power Ring. Though by lacking the Staff, it's not going to be much use to him. And the Guardians and Controllers get a look at some rather quirky arcane technology. About the only ones who came out of this with a clear win were the Forever People, who got to work through some of their troubles and find their teamwork again.

I glad that we have got back the closeness that we had before..
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I'm glad that we have got back the closeness that we had before..
"We could deal with the corrupted Infinity Man outselves.
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"We could deal with the corrupted Infinity Man ourselves.
 
Mr Zoat said:
I run down the hermitage corridor, take a left, down a flightly of stairs and there's a door until I crumble it-.
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'flight'?

How did Lyssa Drak kill Peldak? I got the impression that she made the book with Peldak's sacrifice, and I thought she doesn't have inherent powers, so what am I missing that made her strong enough to beat Peldak? I guess Peldak was really weak, and Drak probably had some magic without the book.
 
Mr Zoat said:
I remove my hand. That explains where Peldak's ring went. Yes, okay, indigo somehow uses other colours, so they infused another colour into it, and… Got an actual yellow ring out of it. I think?
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To be compassionate, you must be empathetic the true power behind the indigos is empathy They can then channel that into a different light color.
 
Duke Long said:
'flight'?

How did Lyssa Drak kill Peldak? I got the impression that she made the book with Peldak's sacrifice, and I thought she doesn't have inherent powers, so what am I missing that made her strong enough to beat Peldak? I guess Peldak was really weak, and Drak probably had some magic without the book.
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Peldak showed up wanting to challenge themselves against spooky dangers because they feel strong with the ring and jumped into the trap without being forced or dragged in. The shadow world blocks or absorbs or whatever all the light, even the light of magic rings. So peldak was completely depowered just like everyone else that went in there. I don't think they would have mastered their emotions or learned magic from Constantine to stay calm and cheat their way out of trouble.
 
Wivk said:
Peldak showed up wanting to challenge themselves against spooky dangers because they feel strong with the ring and jumped into the trap without being forced or dragged in. The shadow world blocks or absorbs or whatever all the light, even the light of magic rings. So peldak was completely depowered just like everyone else that went in there. I don't think they would have mastered their emotions or learned magic from Constantine to stay calm and cheat their way out of trouble.
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Yeah, that makes sense. I guess it was just that Drak seems to need the book (which seems to be made from Peldak) to access the Shadowlands, but she probably had some access without it, and maybe she already had the book and she just improved it with Peldak's sacrifice, or something.
 
Duke Long said:
Yeah, that makes sense. I guess it was just that Drak seems to need the book (which seems to be made from Peldak) to access the Shadowlands, but she probably had some access without it, and maybe she already had the book and she just improved it with Peldak's sacrifice, or something.
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They had help from sinestro and his allies that are trying to get his yellow lantern core started up too. OL has been stumbling into them pretty much the entire time since earth got anti lifed.
 
Mr Zoat said:
I scan the cover, and… Yes. That's her skin alright. I try scanning… Oh. Apparently I can scan the shrine now, and…

"Her body's-. The rest of her body is in one of the workshops. Her species doesn't really have a funeral tradition-" Because corpses draw predators. "-so there isn't much point returning her body to her homeworld. I…" I exhale sadly. "If we can't get in contact with Lantern Ub'x, I can perform a Hellenistic funeral service? Unless anyone's got a better idea."
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You have a body, why don't you just resurrect her?
 
Chojin Patriarch said:
I'm glad that we have got back the closeness that we had before..
"We could deal with the corrupted Infinity Man ourselves.
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moralrelativity said:
to -> of
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Duke Long said:
'flight'?
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Thank you, corrected.
How did Lyssa Drak kill Peldak? I got the impression that she made the book with Peldak's sacrifice, and I thought she doesn't have inherent powers, so what am I missing that made her strong enough to beat Peldak? I guess Peldak was really weak, and Drak probably had some magic without the book.
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The SI doesn't know, but if you catch a weak Lantern unawares then it's not that hard to brain them with a rock.
 
RoninSword said:
The only time Paul did a full ressurection he ended up literally in hell.
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Didn't he successfully get a guy back from a Vietnamese afterlife? Although he was traumatised. It was only with the people who went to Hell that ran a risk of causing trouble of that sort.

I can't really remember how extraterrestrial afterlives work. If people die in space they end up as miserable ghosts (?) and I think the same happened to the souls that died on Mother of Mercy, but then I seem to remember something about how maybe people who die on thaumically inactive planets usually go to Source afterlives?

Talok seems like the sort of place to be thaumically active so I have no idea how Peldak has ended up.
 
I'm just glad that there are New Gods acknowledging OL's ascendancy.

Sure it may technically be a SWLIHN charm, but it counts.
 
Gateway (part 10)
  • Threadmarks
    • 21st August 2015
    22:44 Japan Time

    "You were..? You were there? Ho-how were you there?"

    Captain Thompson's sake-addled brain seems to be having difficulty with the idea that Lieutenant Itami was in Ginza when the gate opened. Honestly, I'm a little surprised myself. A thin orange film covers them both to translate drunk-English into drunk-Japanese, and vice versa.

    Diabo nods.

    "Did you hear something before it opened?"

    "No. Nnnnn. No. It's a shopping district, yano? I was… Just shopping. Wasn't even armed. Just… Just started tryna get everyone away from them. Until backup came."

    "We didn't know that cities this big could exist." Diabo isn't actually drunk -he values his ability to spot assassins too highly to allow himself to get that intoxicated- but he is tipsy. "In our… In Sadera, it's so much smaller, and there are so many more soldiers that we could respond more quickly."

    "We could respond quickly." Captain Thompson drops his right hand to his side, deciding that reaching for a refill isn't a good idea. "Had helicopters ready to go. An' the guys in the embassy, the marines, there were only a couple a' blocks away. All they got to-to-to do was shoot a couple a' those pig-guys."

    Diabo frowns. "Marines?"

    "Yeah?"

    "On land."

    "Yeah?"

    "So… Wouldn't they be soldiers?"

    "Don't fuckin' tell them that."

    That doesn't seem to make any sense to him, but he appears to let it slide, slumping back against the settee.

    "Anyway…" Captain Thompson frowns as he tries to remember his place. "Anyway. I know… Y'know… Japan-American… Diplomatic stuff ain't so hot right now, but what was up with that? I mean, we've been friends for decades. My sister-in-law's Japanese, an' her family... Okay, they don't live anywhere near Ginza, but they might have. It's like… There's plenty of people I don't like much, but if they were on fire right in front of me I'd still put them out."

    Lieutenant Itami nods, eyes not entirely focused.

    "I think… I think… You know everyone's supposed to call it 'The Special Region'?"

    "Yeah, why is that?"

    Itami's eyes drop to the floor. "It's a… Legal thing. So that we can pretend that it's part of Japan."

    Captain Thompson frowns and shakes his head.

    "I'm-. We are the Japanese Self-Defence Force. Not the Japanese Army. Because the treaty we signed at the end of World War Two made it so that is all we are allowed. It's in the constitution. And we can't conquer new land, because it's in the constitution."

    "But that's…" Thompson's frown deepens. "But you're… Doing it anyway?"

    "Sort of. Yes, but… No?"

    "Oh. Like Iraq. And Afghanistan."

    "No. N-o, they keep saying that we're not doing it like that."

    "How is it different?"

    "They haven't got to explaining that part yet. We only just started fortifying the other side of the gate."

    "I'm sure your generals know what they're doing." Captain Thompson chuckles. "Glad someone learned how not to do it from those shit-shows. Word of advice? Make sure that your local allies aren't heroin-dealing child-rapists."

    "Ah." Lieutenant Itami appears to realise that he should pay attention to a statement like that, but his brain isn't cooperating. "Okay?"

    "Yeah, you wouldn't think that was something you… Something you had to spell out, but here.. we.. are."

    There's a moment of quiet contemplation.

    "You know everyone's supposed to call it 'The Special Region'?"

    "Didn't we just..? Yeah? 'cause they're pretending it's part of Japan."

    "I think… There's a plan."

    "Sure?"

    "No. I mean… Making relations worse with America. Calling it 'The Special Region'. Some things… If all we're supposed to do is defend Japan, a Self-Defence Force is all we need. But if we start arguing with America and they move their fleet and close their bases, and we might have to fight China by ourselves, then we need a bigger army."

    "Oh. Yeah…"

    "And I think… I think there's a plan. Because most people wouldn't see what they were doing, they just see America moving its military away. Which would make them worried. So… Maybe they could get the support to change the constitution."

    "I could see that. But… They couldn't know about the gate. Could they?"

    "No, but it's… There's an actual attack. People in Japan actually died."

    "Well, yeah?"

    "But if Americans actually help… That ruins things. Because if they get to Ginza too quickly, then it looks like we need Americans. But don't need a bigger army."

    "Oooooooooohhh… So…"

    "Nothing. There's nothing… It might not be real. I don't think we have a plan for being invaded like that."

    "Britain does."

    Three sets of eyes lock onto my ring, though in Diabo's cause it's more because I just reminded him that I exist. Lieutenant Itami frowns.

    "The… British army has a plan for Roman soldiers teleporting into Britain. That seems a bit… Strange."

    "Yes. And for the Biblical apocalypse. And for being invaded by an army of elves. And for a lot of other things like that. It's a planning exercise the British Army gives to officer cadets. If they're good enough, they go in a drawer, get assigned a reference number and become the official plan for that eventuality."

    "Huh." The Lieutenant nods slowly. "It's weird, but it makes sense. It would have been helpful if we had something like that."

    "So… Look." Captain Thompson leans a little closer to Diabo. "Can..? Can your people open more gates?"

    "No. We couldn't even open this one. Our gods open them for their entertainment, and close them when they get bored. They might open one to your country… The Sanderan Empire wouldn't attack you, but some other nations might. Or they might not. It's not up to us."

    "Can we pay them to open gates?"

    "I don't know. Maybe. They want things, but if we could persuade them to open gates somewhere useful we would have been doing that already. And we wouldn't have come here."

    "Yeah, that makes sense." Captain Thompson flops back against the settee. "Man, we coulda saved so much time just asking you this stuff."

    Lieutenant Itami nods. "We could have just told you."

    Diabo nods as well. "And we should have just left the gate alone."

    Captain Thompson picks up his sake bowel and raises it as a toast.

    "To doing stupid shit."

    Diabo and Lieutenant Itami smile.

    "To stupid shit!" / "To stupid shit!"
     
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    • mastermenthe said:
    I'm just glad that there are New Gods acknowledging OL's ascendancy.

    Sure it may technically be a SWLIHN charm, but it counts.
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    He also has some Solar charms. Ready in Sixty-Four Directions hasn't been necessary recently but the upgrade on Eight Directions is still in his arsenal.

    Not sure whose charm !Exalt Ingroup! is, but it's safe to say it's Exalted.
     
    Mr Zoat said:
    "Nothing. There's nothing… It might not be real. I don't think we have a plan for being invade like that."

    "Britain does."

    Three sets of eyes lock onto my ring, though in Diabo's cause it's more because I just reminded him that I exist. Lieutenant Itami frowns.

    "The… British army has a plan for Roman soldiers teleporting into Britain. That seems a bit… Strange."

    "Yes. And for the Biblical apocalypse. And for being invaded by an army of elves. And for a lot of other things like that. It's a planning exercise the British Army gives to officer cadets. If they're good enough, they go in a drawer, get assigned a reference number and become the official plan for that eventuality."
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    I knew the British had a plan for a zombie apocalypse but I didn't know about this. Where did you learn about the planning exercises Mr Zoat?
     
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